New Blood
by DianaxAkiraFTW
Summary: A time of turmoil is coming in Deck, and with it, new blood will stain the thrones of the four kingdoms red. Inside will entail the stories of how they discovered their marks through destiny alone, and a little bit of mischief from the Jokers. And also a lot of quotes from The Prince. Cardverse AU
1. Queen of Spades

_"A man who is used to acting in one way never changes; he must come to ruin when the times, in changing, no longer are in harmony with his ways."_

It was a simple process, really. When a royal died, the Jokers would come to their kingdom and declare that the royal mark had been distributed amongst the populace of the kingdom. Then a mad hunt would arise, thousands claiming to be royalty ad appearing with fake marks clearly copied from old paintings of the royals that had come and gone with the prior generations.

Arthur Kirkland could give less than a damn about the 'process' right now, he was more concerned about making sure that the metal cuffs weren't digging into his skin. It wouldn't be the first time his skin had been marred by metal, but most of it had been through a fight with swords singing a lovely tune as they collided with each other. Having to explain to his crew later where the new marks had come from would be more than embarrassing.

Then again, his entire crew could be dead. Eirene knows how the navy bastards were going to deal with him, but the stories of torture against pirate captains was enough to send shivers down his spine.

Two hands grabbed his arms roughly, jostling him from his reverie and he is guided out of, what he presumed, was a spell. He wasn't blindfolded, no, but he was currently experiencing the after-effects of a blinding spell. Captain Kirkland of the ship _Britannia_ knew his way around spells, and that the ones the navy had cast was one that would last for a day at most. So far, at least twelve hours had passed, and the spell was falling slightly—every few seconds he would get a brief glimpse of the room he was in, but these seconds were brief and never gave him enough details for him to plan an escape. Now it was too late, the guards not letting up on their vice grips.

The rough treatment didn't surprise him; he had figured out long ago that if he were caught by the Spades Navy, he would be rightfully killed. He only hoped that his crew had gotten out okay. Sure, he was a pirate, but he could still care about the men who said they had families at home and wanted to bring home some gold to help support them.

Far too soon, he was forced to his legs again, letting out a shout at the rough treatment before he was slapped. Arthur grit his teeth but otherwise kept his silence, not wanting to make this whole situation any worse than it already was. He was already guaranteed for death row, might as well make his final hours somewhat easy.

"Get those sodding rags off him, bastard needs to wear normal clothes."

"I have to see the notorious Captain naked? What a bloody honor." Arthur hears two sets of footsteps approach him before his shoulder is jerked back unnaturally. It takes a large amount of effort for him to not shout out in pain, his spin twisting and bending back to try and accommodate for the position. The other guard had moved around to his front and began to unbutton his shirt, the captive man grimacing as he realized just how horrible this whole damn thing whole situation would be. After prolonging it for the stupidest amount of time, the damn guard finished and pulled down the shirt, and Arthur wondered how the hell they were going to get the shirt off around the cuffs on his wrists.

"Sons of Eirene!" The guard behind him jumped back, and the guard in front stood from his position. Arthur let out a sigh of relief, feeling far too uncomfortable with the man about to undo his pants sash.

"What's wrong?"

"His back, look at his back! Sons of Eirene, what do we do?" The guards moved, and Arthur heard the two speaking in hushed tones as he shuffled in place. As they talked, Arthur tried to think of any reason why they would be gawking at his back, but for now he was drawing blanks. Granted, he had been hit on the back with swords and the like, causing many scars to form over the years, but nothing that would cause them to stop the degradation of the captain that had been raiding their villages and destroying ships for years now.

Before he could think of another reason, his hair was pulled. Letting out a yell, Arthur tilted his head back to try and alleviate the pain only to feel the cold metal of a blade pressing against the thin skin of his neck.

"Tell me, _captain_ , were you born in Spades before you turned to the seas?" Arthur held his tongue, a touch of his stubborn nature coming through. The guard growled and applied more pressure against his neck, the prisoner letting out a hiss as he felt his skin part and his blood bubble around the steel. In the back of his mind, he hoped that the blade was clean. "I asked you a question, dog."

"…My mother lived in Sacress before she died from the plague. I had siblings; don't know where they are now though." Arthur ground out, feeling a sliver of relief flood through him as the blade was brought away from his skin. He was then yanked to his feet again and brought out of the room, cursing as his bare foot hit the door frame, a spike of pain running up his leg. The blinding spell faded again, and Arthur glared at the man holding his left arm. His eyes widened when he saw the man's panicked expression, but his sight fell into darkness again, and Arthur growled in annoyance. It wouldn't be impossible for him to undo the spell, but he certainly couldn't do it when he was being manhandled by these idiotic guards.

Another door opened, and the sound of chatter almost immediately silenced itself as Arthur was forced in. As he was escorted, he heard other gasps and offended whispers around him, and that was when a seed of worry was placed in his mind. Sure, he could understand the guards being curious about where he was born—mainly because he'd heard rumors about himself from other ports, and most people had said that only a Clubs could have the gall to destroy so many naval ships—but this many people reacting to his back negatively at this point was just ridiculous. Sure, he'd have his fair share of scars, but everyone's seen scars before, his back shouldn't be that much of a surprise.

It then dawns on him that he's probably being led to his execution early. He doesn't panic, he's mainly just disappointed in himself. He'd figure he'd make it to thirty before he was caught and killed, but twenty-two didn't seem too bad, all things considered.

He's halted abruptly and, once again, forced to his knees. He's starting to wonder if this is a required action when dealing with a prisoner in the kingdom. He grits his teeth and keeps his eyes closed for once, not interested in the chance of seeing where he was.

"What's this?" Says a person in front of him, and Arthur sneers as he hears one of the many accents found in the Heart's Kingdom. "Why'd you bring this guy to me?"

"Well, sir, he…" The guard on his left stutters out awkwardly, and Arthur can't help but roll his eyes. Even the lowest man on his crew could stitch together a coherent sentence. Apparently the second guard has the same idea, and interrupts his friend's panicked monologue.

"We think he has the mark." The hall erupts into an uproar at the sentence, and Arthur hears the distinctive sound of swords being unsheathed before the Heart's man shouts for the whole hall to be silent. Arthur is somewhat surprised that they all listen, but then he remembers the stories of the Trump War that had come and had ended with the plague, and he realizes that being somewhat obedient under this man would make sense.

"Where is it?"

"His back. We were supposed to dress him in prison garb, but we brought him here after we saw it." Arthur feels his head being pushed down until he's looking down at the floor, and the Heart's native moved until he was looking at his back. The pirate's mind races at the implications of the word 'mark,' feeling a sense of dread settle in his stomach. The mark implied a hell of a lot of things, but the fact that a majority of those circulated around him no longer being able to run his crew and be locked to land scared him the most. He wondered if he could get out of his restraints and beat all of the guards to death and escape while he was blind.

Then the Hearts man touched the center of his back, and he blacked out.

* * *

When he wakes up he can see again.

Normally, that's a great thing. Waking up and seeing again after those brief glimpses of sight from earlier in the day.

Problem was he was expecting to be in his cell. Right now, he was in a far too fancy room for a prisoner, and he didn't even have his arms tied or anything. The guards were incompetent, but they couldn't have possibly been this stupid to put him in an actually decent room. Pushing off the (silk? Were they fucking _silk_?) blankets, Arthur stood from the bed and moved to a full body mirror that was hung up on the wall.

He appeared… _normal_. His skin looked a little bit paler, his eyes duller, but other than that he looked the same way he did two days ago. Running his hands over his back, he could feel the raised skin that showed where scars had risen and healed over, but nothing too shocking if you knew a pirate's life. Furrowing his brows, he remembered the guards mentioning a mark of some sort—his memories after being dragged out of the second cell were kind of hazy—and he turned around, twisting his neck to stare at his back.

He nearly screamed at seeing the Queen's mark on his back. Like all royal tattoos, the kingdom's symbol was clearly the center point, an elegantly detailed spade. In the center was a 'Q,' outlined in the black spade with a royal blue. Wrapping around the base of the symbol and arching above and around it were blue roses, the stems showing off sharp thorns. Prowling down from the edges of the Spade were two panthers, their tails wrapped by around the rose's stems, one expressing fury and rage while the other stared with a borderline creepy calmness.

"Finally, you're up." Arthur's head snapped up and he stared at the man who had just entered the room. His back collided with the cold surface of the mirror once he realized he was looking at the Black Joker, _conversing_ with the Black Joker, and he wasn't dead. "How was your sleep, Aurora? Goddess, I figured that you would pass out after I activated the damn mark, but not for two days."

Arthur growled, forgetting that the man in front of him was one of the most powerful beings alive as he stomped over and grabbed the other's collar. "Get. It. Off."

"What, not happy that you're a ruler now? That you've got all of Spades under your thumb? Please, like that isn't what a greedy pirate like you wants."

"I want to be out at sea, with my _men_." Arthur emphasized, letting go of the Joker's collar in favor of pacing around the room. "I don't want to settle down with a prick of a King and having to take care of a kingdom. This is _not_ what I want."

"Well too bad." The Joker says, moving in front of Arthur and digging his fingernails into his back, sending a jolt of _no no let go bad get off_ down his spine and causing him to freeze at the familiar feeling. "You have to deal with this now, the plague's ruined everything and nothing good is about to come around. You aren't gonna have a fun time, Captain, you have to deal with the shit that's about to happen."

With a plume of smoke, the Joker teleported away, and Arthur collapsed to his knees, his back arching and distorting the royal mark on his back.


	2. AN Notes

Hey I totally forgot to post the freaking end notes to the first chapter so imma just do that now (and then all the other end notes will be added on at the ends of the chapters because I won't be an idiot).

\- I debated for the longest time whether or not England should be a pirate or a simple farmboy, then decided that it would be better as his position as the Queen for him to be a pirate so he would have prior knowledge of managing ships/naval fleets. He was originally going to be a farmboy with Britannia (his mother), Allistor (Scotland), and Daimhin (Northern Ireland), but then I threw in the idea of a plague coming and it changed a whole lot.

\- And now, the reasons behind me picking these symbols in the tattoo:

Panthers symbolize strength, companionship, adventure, loyalty, triumph, and a spiritual mind or personality. I wanted to take loyalty and strength, and the spiritual mind added to my personal idea of what a Queen and, more importantly, Arthur as a queen would show. Blue obviously relates to the fact that blue is considered a royal color, but the roses (as they are not naturally occurring due to genetic limitations) have a lot of meanings that are really unique as well! One of them is unattainableness; another is love at first sight, a third meaning says that it has to do with new beginnings, which is a big thing that is going on with Arthur, as he has been ripped from his life as a pirate to suddenly being a self-respecting Queen.

In other news, this is also going one Ao3 under the same name, and you can see the pairings and more characters that will be added. This is going to be the first story in a _series_ , this one entailing how the Hetalia cast came to the throne and their backgrounds, and then another story will be made with an actual conflict and plot line other than a bunch of chapters that aren't completely connected.

For the people who have read this story and are enjoying this, thank you for your support and consideration! This is one of my first Hetalia stories and I'm still kinda new to the fandom, so I apologize in advance if I get characters wrong. For now, just chalk it up to the fact that we're in an AU.


	3. Jack of Spades

_"If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared."_

Yao didn't know what to think.

4,000 years ago, he would have cared about his personal appearance. How you looked showed everyone your social status, that you had the money to spend on clothes and a haircut and things that could give you happiness.

3,000 years ago, he slowly began to realize that this wasn't going to end. That he was stuck in the body of a young adult and that he would never grow old (well, physically he wouldn't). Mortality never seemed sweeter, and he grew envious of the children who wandered into the woods, only to be swallowed whole by monsters and demons that lurked in his abode. He grew envious of the old couple that grew old together. He grew envious of cities and their plagues that would bring grief and sadness to all. He wanted relief

2,000 years ago, he became desperate. He threw himself off of cliffs, impaled himself with old, rusted swords, made gashes so deep they slashed at his bones, wrapped vines around his neck and jumped, threw himself off of a pier tied with ropes. _Nothing_ worked and he was honestly about to go insane, when would this damn curse _end_?

1,000 years ago, he stopped caring. Starvation would not work, he knew that from his many failed attempts to reach salvation and bliss, so he would lie in the earthy ground and let the seasons pass by uneventfully, let the plants and spirits make their dues around him. When he rose from the ground to move, to finally find something to eat because he was still going to be in considerate pain from starvation and dehydration, he noticed the grass he was laying on was shriveled and dead. When he found a pond and had finished drinking great long gulps of water from it, he looked down and saw a walking corpse staring back at him.

Today he decided that his skin was covered in just enough grime and grit to make him uncomfortable enough to warrant a bath. First he took off his clothes and washed them, placing them on a flat rock in the sunlight to dry. Stripping down until he was bare, Yao took a few steps away from the edge of the lake he had found before running and diving in. His stomach ran over the sand uncomfortably, but he ignored it and continued to swim under. Eventually his lungs begged for oxygen, and he swam to the surface, letting out a sigh as he felt the humid air cling to his face. He ran his fingers through his long hair to get rid of any twigs or bugs that had taken residence. Scraping his nails over his skin, he rubbed away the dirt that had covered him, exposing the horribly pale skin that hid from the sun

Yao sighed and dove down to the bottom, running his fingers through his hair to get rid of the bugs and moss that had tangled in the long hair (he hadn't cut it in so long, but he kept it short enough to where it was manageable if tied back). Then he ran his hands over his skin, scratching away the mud and dust that had collected over the months.

It was in that moment he noticed the tattoo that spiraled down his shoulder. A snake, dead by the look in its eyes, wrapped around a small spade and the letter J, a wilting chrysanthemum flower held in its mouth. Yao thought his mind was playing tricks on him, that it was just an oddly detailed patch of dark skin that had been dyed black by the dirt covering his skin.

But no, it was a part of his skin, all the scratching in the world could not get his shoulder clean of the mark.

In the back of his mind, he remembered the old tales of the Kings and Queens and Jacks of Kingdoms long ago. How they would wake up one day and have a mark dictating their new life, and how they would be whisked away to the castle to live a better life.

This had to be a sick joke. Four thousand years of suffering alone and forcing to give up everything to avoid persecution from his home town, and now he was supposed to be a royal advisor for a kingdom he could give less than a single shit about. The Gods hadn't done a single thing for him before, and now they were just thrusting more stupid shit on him.

He'd kill himself if it weren't for the fact that he knew it wouldn't work. Grumbling, Yao pulled on his shirt and pants and moved from the pond. He subconsciously rubbed at his arm, feeling the thrum of unfamiliar magic pulse through his bloodstream. For now, it was subdued, a small irk that he would get used to over the years he would remain in isolation.

He had planned to remain in isolation; the mark could not magically fix his problems.

Those plans were destroyed when the Black Joker sat on one of the low-hanging tree branches.

"Well then, hello there new Jack! Ready to go to the castle?" He said, pointed tail twitching behind him in glee. Yao frowned, turned his gaze back to the path, and moved on.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, where do you think you're going?" The Joker said, jumping from his branch and standing in front of Yao's path.

"Away. Specifically, away from you." Yao says, moving to the right.

The Joker copies his movement and obnoxiously stands in Yao's way. "Great, I'll leave you after you go to the castle, and then I can find the rest! That's probably as far away as I can get from you, take it or leave it."

"Well too bad, I'm not going to the castle." Yao says and shoves past the Joker, ignoring the scandalous expression on the albino's face. The immortal man could not help the eye twitch when the Joker strode up next to him, hands buried in the pockets of his outlandish outfit.

"Mind telling me why?"

"Mind telling me why you care?"

"It's my job to bring the new royals to the castle. Plus, not a whole lot of people that don't have a home would be willing to say 'no thanks' when this stuff happens."

"Because becoming the—what's it called, the Jack?—becoming the Jack won't solve my problems." Yao mutters, giving a dirty look to the man beside him. They stopped walking, the Joker jumping up into the branches high above Yao's head. "Look, this is important, I know, but nothing good will come out of this if I go. I can't die. I've tried to die, but nothing works, and the moment I go in some magic-tuned guy will be able to tell and I'll be burned or something. Once the new royals come in, I'll get kicked out and go back to living like this again, and I won't be able to deal with it after being separated from everything for so long."

A long period of silence settled between them, only to be broken at the barely suppressed sounds of laughter coming from the Joker. "How long has it been since you've been to a city? A lot of people are more accepting of magic nowadays, and if I don't bring you to the capital, a group's gonna come and drag you there themselves."

Seeing that Yao wasn't taking the bait, the Joker let out a sigh and wrapped his tail around the tree branch before slipping off, letting the more flexible limb support his weight. "Look, I'll make you a deal. You go and be the Jack for the new King and Queen, and I'll get rid of your immortality."

Yao's head snapped up as he stared at the Joker. "No jokes?"

"No jokes." He says, managing to unwind his tail and fall to the forest floor. "It's within my realm of power, pretty damn easy to get rid of a curse. All you need to do is help out the new royals for as long as they rule," He extends one of his gloved hands and gives an insincere smile to the immortal man. "What do you say?"

Yao stared blankly at the hand, mulling over the offer in his head. On one hand, it still meant he would get attached to at least two people, and the Joker could be doing what he's known for doing best, _lying_. On the other hand…

He'd finally be able to die.

A plume of smoke rises up from the ground, and when it dissipates, Yao and the Joker are gone.

* * *

Okay so Yao is such a difficult character for me to write simply because I can never get China's character down. I didn't want to make him appear greedy or self-centered, but more apathetic to other people and not interested in ruling. Of course, his backstory doesn't make this any easier, since the whole reason why he was cursed was because his lover accused him of being horribly greedy and used some really hard-to-break magic to curse him.

Also, it's super hard for Yao to come back into society cause a lot of shit has changed. 4,000 years ago, there weren't any laws on magic, but it was perceived as a bad thing and most magic was black magic, not the elemental kind that most people now use in Deck. The only people who have access/fine ability to use dark magic would be the Jokers, which is mainly the kind of magic that Gilbert uses.

Yao Tattoo Meaning

\- In this, Yao was a human cursed for his greed and told he must live forever. As such, the symbol for Spades and the J are incredibly small, as he could care less about the Kingdom (as he's so old he can no longer remember which Kingdom he originally came from or even if the kingdom existed in the first place) or his role. The only reason why he went to Spades to fill his goal was that the Black Joker (Prussia) promised to relieve his curse if he could serve under the new King and Queen. As such, the symbols are wrapped by a dead snake, representing the First Sin in the bible and the fact that it was so long ago that the grudge and the one who gave him the curse is long dead. He also has one singular wilting chrysanthemum flower, showing the fact that his hope for death to claim him is slowly dying.


	4. Ace and King of Spades

_"Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception."_

Matthew and Alfred had to constantly say that they were twins growing up. It used to leave a sour taste in Matthew's mouth whenever he said those two tiny words, especially since he thought it was quite obvious they weren't.

Alfred is loud, brash, and doesn't have a filter. Matthew is quiet, reserved, and prefers to stay out of the spotlight.

Alfred's hair was cut above his neck, and there was one clump of hair that stubbornly disobeyed the laws of gravity and stuck up. Matthew's hair reached down to the middle of his neck, and he had one strand that curled around and almost always hung in his face.

Alfred's eyes are blue. Matthew's eyes were an odd shade of purple.

To Matthew, they were as different as they could be. To the rest of the small town, they were twins (and by this logic, practically the same person), and their parents made sure that that point stayed constant.

He had come up on the Jones' house when he was seven, running away from a drunken mother that weaved horror stories about the woods around their house. Some of what she said was true, like the fact that there are fairies that flit through the trees, their voices as small and meek as their height. What was false were the stories of wolves nearly as tall as their small house, flesh and fur stripped away to show bones that could resist the strength of a sword and were strong enough to snap him in two.

That last part could still be true, and if it is, then he's relieved that he didn't see anything like that while running.

* * *

As far as the Jones family is aware, Matthew ran away from home and managed to survive without bringing any food or clean water with him, and it was a miracle that he found their house.

What they don't know is that Matthew met someone while he was running. It's not like he doesn't remember the man—he remembers the man very, very well. It's just…

There's this part of him, way down near the very core of his soul that told him that he shouldn't tell anyone about Gilbert. Even at five years old, Matthew knew that he didn't argue with a gut feeling. It was a gut feeling that drove him to leave his mom, and if this gut feeling drove him to not even whisper a word about Gilbert to his new family, then so be it.

But sometimes, very quietly and sneakily, Matthew would go to the biggest tree that he could see the house from and leave a tiny snack in one of the knots in the trunk. The next night he'd sneak out again and check and the snack would be gone. He didn't know whether Gilbert had found the snack or if a little forest creature had decided that they were blessed with a gift from the goddess, but it was just his way of saying thanks.

Thank you for the food.

Thank you for not abandoning me when I was crying.

Thank you for showing me to my new home.

And a thousand more that Matthew couldn't phrase in words.

* * *

He and Alfred are 18 when the marks appear. Their town is so far out that the hunt hadn't been announced yet, and there were no rumors of the Joker coming near their town yet. Either way, they didn't tell their parents.

Occasionally, Alfred and Matthew would go out to the creek in the woods and take a nice swim during the humid summer months. There was a creek not too far from their house, and it helped them stay clean and cool, so their parents didn't really mind so long as they were the only two there.

Alfred raced ahead, as per usual, jumping over any large boulders or overturned tree trunks as Matthew trailed a little bit behind, taking cautious steps and looking around. His brother knew the drill, and Matthew knew that he would start taking off his clothes before he would reach the riverbed.

So Matthew was prepared for Alfred standing with his back facing him completely nude. What he wasn't prepared for was the black mark spreading along his shoulder blades. Matthew gasped, Alfred turning around at the sound only to be turned back to face the creek while Matthew stared at the clearly royal mark.

"What? What is it?" Alfred said, hunching his shoulders inwards. Matthew rolled his eyes and pulled them back until they were straight so he could get a good look at the mark. It showed a Lion lying down, a small Spade etched onto its stomach and a decorative 'K' was held under its paw. Matthew idly traced the edge of its mane, only for Alfred to shudder and lock up.

"Mattie, what's on my back?"

"The mark." Matthew replies, removing his hand and seeing the tension ebb out of his brother's posture. "I think it's the King's mark."

"Did the King die?" Alfred tried to find the mark by bending his elbows over and finding it by running his hands over his back. Maybe he was expecting the marked skin to have a different texture, but the sight of Alfred bending his back and standing on his toes to 'find' the mark was a little bit comedic.

"Maybe he's dying." Matthew says, starting to take off his pants. "Or maybe he is dead. News travels really slowly, y'know."

"Yeah, I know." Alfred turns around, a gigantic grin on his face. "So is it cool looking? Does it look like people would tremble in fear if you described it?"

"No, it's just a bunch of puppies fighting over a bowl of food. I can just barely see the Spade and K." Matthew tosses his pants off to the side and fights to get his shirt off. The sweat on his skin caused the cotton to stick to his skin, and that combined with the fact that he was hitting a late growth spurt, this was a difficult task.

"Whoa, wait wait wait wait! Don't move!" Alfred holds up his arms and Matthew freezes, feeling a hand trace over his chest and an odd feeling of comfort and security flows through his body. "Dude, _what the hell_."

"Wh-What? What's wrong?" Matthew twists a bit and manages to free his arm from his twisted position and pull of the shirt. Looking down, he feels his heart skip a beat when he sees equally dark skin on his chest. Unlike the story books and his own brother's mark, the picture on Matthew's check showed the letter 'A' floating above a destroyed city, ice rising in rigid spikes through the debris.

"What kind of mark has that?" Alfred asks pointing at the desolation portrayed on his chest.

"I-" Matthew swallows, hesitantly curling into himself in an attempt to hide the destruction showed on his chest. "I don't know."

* * *

It's a week later when the Joker arrives, and the city could not have been more under-prepared. Not only was the news of the King's death just now reaching them, there was a really bad rainstorm rolling through the area. Matthew and Alfred stared out one of the windows on the first floor that showed the front yard, betting which raindrops would make it to the bottom first. It was an easy way to pass time and their chores had been mostly completed earlier in the day (mostly referring to the fact that Alfred insisted on not cleaning his room), so they could spare some time for fun.

To be honest, neither of them found much fun in doing this when they were eighteen, but they were so bored that anything could be 'fun' at this point.

"Who's that man out there?" Their mother asks, and the brother's heads snap back to look at the muddy path in front of their house. "He's going to catch his death at this rate."

"Can we let him in?" Alfred's face immediately lit up, hoping that the man would be able to spice up their evening a bit. Seeing his mother nod, the older ran to the door and threw an old jacket over his head before running out into the storm and shouting at the man to hurry up and get inside.

"Thanks." Says the man, brushing off any rain drops that stubbornly clung to his jacket. "Really, thank you, that rain is not going to let up anytime soon."

"It's no problem." Their mother says. "Are you from Hearts?"

"I _was_. I mainly wander around the Kingdoms now." The man looks around the living room, his eyes landing on Matthew. "Well look at that! It's Vögelchen! I've enjoyed your little treats you been leaving me."

"Um…" Matthew blushed and looked down at his lap. "Thank you."

Their mother cleared her throat, her foot tapping on the wooden floor. "Excuse me, but I would like to know how you know my son."

They talked over dinner, Matthew explaining that, when he had run away from his mom, he and Gilbert had met. Since he was five at the time, Gilbert had hunted and brought him back food and clean water for him to survive. His mother and Alfred were both incredibly thankful for Gilbert's help, but Alfred couldn't help but feel a little bit annoyed at the fact that Matthew had never told him the story.

"So Gilbert, what brings you to our home?" Their mother asks, cutting at the steak that she had cooked.

Gilbert grins. "Nothing too big, just looking for the new King."

Alfred chokes on his food, and his mother drops her knife and fork. "You're the Joker?" Matthew asks, eyes widening behind his glasses.

"Yup. What, are you going to bow down to my awesomeness?"

Alfred and Matthew look at each other from across the table and then look back at Gilbert. "What if we said that we had a mark?" Alfred asks. "Would you have to bow down to us?"

"That depends on whether you're lying or not." Gilbert smirks, leaning back in his chair and chewing at a piece of his steak.

He didn't expect both of the brothers to stand up and take of their shirts. He also didn't expect his gaze to linger more on Matthew's chest than Alfred's shoulders, because he's only looking for the King. The Queen and Jack had already been found, so only one of them should have a mark. But no, both of them had a mark, and the one on Matthew's chest was the one for the Ace.

AKA, the 'Bringers of Destruction.'

"Alfred, Matthew! Why didn't you tell me?" Their mother yells, staring at the two marks on their chests.

Gilbert tuned out the rest of the conversation, wondering what this meant for the Kingdom.

* * *

Vögelchen – Birdie/Little Bird (according to google translate)

…You can tell when I started being 'done' with this chapter. Either way, I'm happy with it in the end.

So yeah, I made Alfred and Matthew 'brothers' and not twins in this, and trust me, I normally do think of the two of them as twins when they're human. For this situation, I needed Matthew to have a reason to be in the woods for around a week so he could meet Gilbert.

So, both of their tattoo's meanings!

\- Alfred's was kind of hard to pick out, but I decided to stay simple. The Spade is clearly not as large as Arthur's, as it is on the Lion's chest, but the Spade held under its paw is much larger. The symbolism behind this is meant to show that Alfred cares more about the Kingdom of Spades and what he'd do for it than being King. Even if he wasn't destined to have the mark, he would have enrolled in the army to defend the Kingdom. Problem is, this prejudice against the other Kingdoms will make it hard for him to rule fairly with most decisions (like trade or immigration), so the Queen would have to steer him onto the right track with these decisions.

\- Matthew's the poor, poor ace, which are only blessed with the mark when destruction or threat of the collapse of the kingdom is imminent. Normally, the Aces have some sort of interaction with a Joker (Red or Black, depends on the Kingdom) before the mark exists, which gets the ball rolling for Matthew to fall in love with Gilbert. The Ace and the A are of about equal size, but scattered around them are the ruins of buildings, a torn flag of Spades blowing in the air, showing the scale of destruction.


	5. Extra 1 - King and Queen of Spades

**Hey, so, I'm taking a short break from this to think up the other tattoo/backstories of the characters. I do have some planned (the Clubs Kingdom, half of the Hearts Kingdom, and the Jokers!) but it'll take a while to write them out. Even then, I still have to write up and then plan all the other characters (the rest of the Hearts Kingdom and the Diamonds kingdom). I'm also working on Grudges, which I want to get done before the summer ends, so that'll take up my time as well.**

 **So, for now, have this little awkward fluff scene between Alfred and Arthur and some magic bullcrap behind their marks.**

* * *

Somehow Arthur had managed to get used to the life of a monarch rather quickly.

He had to dress in actually nice clothes for once—not that he hadn't worn nice clothes before. When he did, they became stiff and uncomfortable from the sea spray, so he tended to wear a simple dress shirt and pants on a normal day. Now he was wearing a long coat with spades sewn into the two bottom tails with blue pants and fancy boots. He was eating good food, sleeping in a bed (which was _very_ hard to get used to), and he had made a rather decent connection with the Jack that the Joker had brought in three days ago.

It was two days into his new role when he realized there was a very big problem. He was the Queen, and he had yet to see, or even hear about the King in the castle. A week later, the problem was finally 'resolved' when a boy named Alfred and his brother, Matthew, were brought in by the Joker.

And then in the middle of the night, Alfred was shoved into his room with little fanfare, and the door was then locked from the outside.

"To be completely fair," Alfred said as he watched Arthur pace back and forth from his spot on the bed. "This wasn't my idea. I think Mattie and the Joker worked together on this one."

"Good, I know who I'm going to strangle in the morning." Arthur says, sighing in defeat and unbuttoning his shirt. "One way or another, we need to sleep, and I don't think either of us are going to manage if we try to sleep on the floor."

Alfred's eyes widened. "Well, maybe I could try to break down the door-"

"And have the entire castle think that there's an assassin trying to kill us? Or even worse, think that you and I were about to sleep with each other?" Arthur took off his shirt, tossing it onto the desk they had put in the corner of the room. At some point he would have to rearrange the furniture to suit his likings, but for now, he wasn't going to complain about it.

"Hey, what's so bad about the second one?"

"Maybe because you act like a two year old and I am the Queen?"

"Shit, you're the Queen?" Arthur frowned and pulled back the curtains to let in moonlight. The mark on his back became very noticeable, and Alfred's eyes were immediately drawn to the decorative Q in the center of the spade.

"Yes, I am." Arthur rolled his neck and yawned, not noticing that Alfred had gotten up from the bed. "Now then, we'll sleep together for the night, and then in the morning we can-"

Alfred traced the edges of the rose petals on his back, and Arthur felt his thoughts leave in a rush of comfort.

It was so, _so_ weird. He knew it was irrational, it didn't make sense (because magic is a bitch like that, it never makes sense, and it can make you do incredibly stupid stuff you would never rationally do) and he should have panicked. He would have panicked if it weren't for the fact that his mind was clouded and the fact that he pushed back into the touch, his body begging for more of the _good yes comfort nice_ that was racing up and down his spine. Alfred was saying something, but nothing was piercing through the fog in his mind except for the fact that _this was good, this was his king, this was natural-_

And then Alfred jumped away from Arthur and slammed his shoulder into the stone wall. Arthur, who had leaned against Alfred pretty heavily, promptly fell right on his tailbone, jarred out of the wave of good emotions he was experiencing.

"Sorry sorry sorry sorry." Alfred says, nervously laughing and desperately trying to ignore the prominent blush on his face. "I didn't—I shouldn't have done that, that wasn't, uh…"

Arthur hissed and rubbed his tailbone, shaking off the cloud that lingered in his mind. "I'm fine, you know. Thanks for asking."

"Right, probably should have asked that. I'll just, y'know, go to sleep. Won't touch your back again, promise."

"You can touch my back, you just can't touch the mark." Seeing Alfred's confused expression, Arthur elaborated. "The mark's magic, and—I'm assuming here—when someone else touches the mark, the person who has it experiences a lot of emotions. Like with what just happened, I was overloaded and wasn't really thinking. Any other part of my back is fine for you to touch."

"Oh." Alfred looks away. "Is, is it really that bad?"

"Depends on who's grabbing at your skin." Arthur moves and sits on the other side of the bed. "Has no one touched yours yet?"

"Mattie, but I pulled away really quickly." Alfred glances at Arthur and then turns away completely. "Could—could you…?"

Arthur rolls his eyes at the unspoken question. This boy was meant to be the King? This shy, naïve boy that probably hadn't stepped foot outside his house, and didn't know the true nature of the world? Arthur sighed and crawled across the bed until he was besides Alfred, who still made an effort to not look at the Queen. "Where is it?

Alfred pulls off his shirt, showing the mark that stretched across his shoulder blades. Arthur put his hand on his bicep first, letting Alfred get used to his touch before slowly dragging his fingertips to the mark. He felt the new King tense up before practically melting into his touch, his eyelids lowering until they were half closed, pressing against Arthur's hand. The older man felt a blush cross his cheeks, but he continued regardless, knowing that any comfort from the new position of power would be more than welcome.

However, that didn't mean that Arthur didn't stop when the teenager let out a low moan. Arthur pulled back his hand like he had placed it on a hot stove, immediately scooting away from his… husband? Referring to their positions, they were supposed to be married. Most Kings and Queens do, although it wasn't necessary nor required, it was more for tradition's sake than anything else.

Of all times to have a moral dilemma, it shouldn't be now. Alfred snapped out of his trance and looked at Arthur, his face as red as an apple. Arthur cursed; one moan and they were both blushing like virgin school girls. It wasn't as if Arthur hadn't taken part in sex before, but all the other times he was a bumbling teenager with limbs that felt too long and a voice that cracked like glass.

Didn't help that most of the people he had sex with were women from brothels.

"Let's, uh…" Alfred fiddled with the waistline of his pants, pulling back the covers on the bed. "Let's go to sleep?"

"Yes." Arthur said, trying to ignore the tension between them. "Let's go to sleep."


	6. Queen and Jack of Clubs

_"The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present."_

Long, long ago, before Elizabeta was labeled as the Queen, she was married to Roderich.

They had exchanged their vows at the tender age of sixteen, Sol watched their marriage in the sky above and Terran blessed the ground they stepped on. It was rare for the northern skies of the Clubs Kingdom to be devoid of clouds in the middle of winter, and the High Priest interpreted this as an omen for a long, bountiful marriage filled with little strife. Four years later, and Elizabeta and Roderich were still married. Their elders and other married couples said that they had never seen such a perfect duo before.

Elizabeta cursed Terran's name daily for his 'blessing.' Either the village was deaf or their house had the thickest walls known to mankind.

"You never do anything!" She screamed, stomping to the piano where her husband sat. "All you do is play that piano over and over again, when are you going to get a job?"

"I don't need one, Elizabeta. We've had this argument before, my father's inheritance will be enough if we are short on money." Elizabeta seethed as Roderich gave her his usual response. It was like the man didn't understand how the world worked! Then again, he probably never stepped foot outside his little sheltered paradise, so he couldn't get why Elizabeta insisted that he get a steady source of income. She had lived on the streets, working hard to get money and support herself to get away from her parents. He had lived in paradise and sanctity, never having to worry about money. It drove her insane that the man didn't know how to act with any aspect of society.

"We aren't getting any inheritances unless your father dies within the week. Either way, you need to do _something_. This isn't how a husband acts!"

"And you think you act like a wife?" Roderich turned away from his sheet music and stood from the piano stool, trying to use his height to intimidate his wife. "Don't think I haven't seen that sword you've 'hid.' And I know about your training sessions with Vlad, the whole town gossips about it."

"That's because I planned on joining the military before this whole arranged marriage! The whole town knows about that little fact to, Roderich." Elizabeta hat though, multiple times, that that was the only reason the marriage had been set up by her mother and father. There was no way that they hadn't learnt of her sword fighting, either from gossiping housewives or seeing the various cuts that had littered her arms from Vlad's strikes. So, in order to keep their 'precious little girl' from becoming a war-waging tomboy, they set up the marriage with the Edelsteins between her and Roderich. It would give her family some more honor and money, as well as keep her bound to the town.

It was possible for Elizabeta to run with only her mother and father caring about her wellbeing. Now that the Edelsteins—one of the most powerful family names in the whole damn Kingdom, only rivaled by the royals themselves—were aware of her 'fantasy' to become a well-respected knight, they would do everything in their power to keep her in her place.

* * *

It's honestly so sickening sometimes.

Roderich turned on his side and rubbed the tips of his fingers over her stomach in (what she assumes in his messed up mind) comforting little circles. He whispered sweet nothings, saying that he loved her and would cherish and protect her as he slowly falls asleep.

Elizabeta lies awake and doesn't even bother to say that she would be the one to protect them, as Roderich doesn't know how to wield the smallest of knives. She knows that, if she does speak up, it will only lead to an argument, and she doesn't want to deal with that at one in the morning.

And as she lay on cloth, not the 'blessed soil' that Terran had power over, and Sol lay sleeping as his daughter instead slowly rose across the sky, Elizabeta felt tears fall from her eyes. Her hands fisted the sheets beneath her, and she wanted so desperately to leave the bed and get her sword, to end Roderich and run for the hills.

But she knows she can't, not unless she wanted more trouble than his blood is worth. She doesn't want money, and she most certainly doesn't want to give her family honor and pride as they had bent her over a barrel and sold her to the highest bidder. What she wanted, more than anything, was to run away and never look back.

* * *

She woke up on the fifth anniversary of their wedding exhausted. Roderich had already left the bed, and for a good reason. Both of their parents would be arriving and giving them gifts as a way to celebrate another year of them being together.

Elizabeta knew that it was her parent's way of making sure she hadn't left her husband, and that she wasn't going anytime soon.

She sighed and crawled out of the bed, trying to comb her fingers through the knots and tangles that had formed overnight. Yawning, Elizabeta took off her nightgown and tossed it to the stone floor. Rubbing at her eyes, she opened her closet and took out her two nice dresses—she had plenty more, but these two were simply for her to appear impressive, the rest were simple brown cloth that she wore around the house while working—and moved to the full body mirror on the wall. She held one dress in front of her and frowned, and then switched it with the second dress, frowning again. It was rare that she wore these things, but if she wanted to keep her parents off her back then she would have to play the part of a happy housewife.

She tilted her head. Was it just her, or did her stomach appear… darker? She held the dresses out to her sides only to drop them and cover her mouth with her hands. She dropped to her knees in shock as tear began to fall down her cheeks, ad choked sob leaving her throat.

"I haven't done this in over five years, but thank you, Terran."

* * *

Roderich smiled as he pulled off his shirt and turned around, showing his parents the mark that had appeared on his back that morning. They were over the moon—it wasn't the _King's_ mark, but it was a position of high power, nonetheless—at the announcement, and he felt an odd amount of joy in their reactions. Two violins framed a dog, whose body curled around a J and a Club.

Maybe this would be what he and Liz needed to fix their relationship. He wasn't blind, but his childhood desires and pride kept him from ending the marriage. Sometimes he thinks that's the only reason his parents agreed to the marriage. He had _gushed_ to them about the enchanting female when he was in his early teenage years, directly in the midst of puberty.

"Oh, sweetheart, this is great!" His mother said while pulling him into a bear hug. "You're a royal now! Oh, Elizabeta will be so happy."

As if on cue, Elizabeta came down the stairs, and Roderich watched her parent's faces fall. The new Jack smiled, however, when he saw that Elizabeta was dressed in his clothes with a traveling bag slung over her shoulder. Her hair was tied back into a ponytail, and her sword was hung on her hip, an air of power and pride radiating around her.

 _This_ was the woman he fell in love with and hadn't seen in five years.

"Elizabeta, _darling_ ," Her father began with a strained smile. "What are you wearing?"

"I'm heading to the Capital." She responded, moving past the crowded room and into the kitchen. "I'll probably have to rent a horse and ride it out to one of the transport crystals, and I can't do that in a dress."

"Well you aren't leaving." Her mother ground out, deciding to throw away any guise of happiness she had set up. "You have responsibilities here and to your husband, and as your mother I demand that-"

"And as your new Queen, I say you no longer have any authority over me or my actions. "Elizabeta spun around and lifted up her shirt, showing off the stained skin on her stomach. A large bird stretched out its wings, a Q and a Club emblazed on the insides. In its talons it held a sword, and the brunette grinned at the stunned silence that filled the room. "I think I'll go to the High Priest for a divorce along the way. After all, the Queen can't be married to the Jack, right mother?"

Roderich grinned. Elizabeta would make a grand Queen.

* * *

HOLY SHIT THIS TOOK FAR TOO LONG TO WRITE GOD DAMN. It's mainly because I'm so shit at writing Austria and Hungary (and I don't ship AusHun either so that made this even harder to choke out) and then it was just the subject matters in this made it even more difficult so... Ugh.

Regardless, chapter notes!

\- Most of the inspiration I took for the 'bird' mentioned in the tattoo is that of the Turul, the national animal of Hungary. While the mythology behind the Turul doesn't fully fit in with the story behind Elizabeta's past (as she definitely doesn't get impregnated by a magical bird), I thought that having a bird would show that Elizabeta wants to be free and independent from the restrictions put in place by her family's decision to get her married without her full consent. The location of the tattoo (her stomach) was supposed to represent the 'third chakra,' which symbolizes a whole lot of shit, but the main ones that Elizabeta takes into this would be personality, willpower, confidence, and self-esteem. I made her self-esteem shaky in the beginning to show that the mark not only changes a person's social position, but also can change their own outlook of themselves.

\- Roderich to me is an incredibly self-centered character—but even I do understand that he is a human and has to care about something. Even then, he cares very little about his position about a Jack, and more so cares about having Elizabeta love him back, but he fucks it up at every turn and it just causes their arranged marriage to completely spiral out of control. The 'dog' on his back is supposed to be a Jackal, an animal that isn't really seen in Clubs because of the cold weather, and it is meant to show Roderich's greed. Jackals are compared to foxes with their stereotypes and, according to Wikipedia, the jackal 'Is often a manipulative minister to the king.' He cares about his musical talents a whole lot, which is why there are two violins on either side of the Jackal, but the two symbols are small to show their comparison to what he truly cares about.

\- Arranged marriages are totally a thing, and Clubs is very, very strict. It's a traditional kingdom compared to Hearts and Spades, so woman are more bartering tools than people (gag) and are most definitely not allowed in the military. Men are allowed in the Club's military at 16 years old, so either before her birthday or on the day of her birthday, Elizabeta was married to Roderich to keep her in line and all of that junk.

\- I made it very, very vague, but Roderich does care about Elizabeta and the marriage, but he did not fall in love with the houselife persona she had to put up. If she didn't act like she was happy and hide all her misery, her parents would not be happy and god knows what they would do to her (again, women are more property than people in Clubs). Roderich fell in love with the tomboy that could chop of someone's hand and kick ass with a sword and shield, not the woman who cooked him dinner and had to do housework under threat. He tried to make it better for her, but he could tell that Liz was not happy in the slightest with any of this.

\- SO GOING BACK TO TRADITIONS it's expected for Queens and Kings to marry, which is why that High Priest and her mother (who she can easily denounce now that she has a hell of a lot more power) would both agree to the divorce from Roderich. Jacks and Queens tend to not marry, Queens and Kings do.


	7. Ace of Clubs

_"Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great."_

 _A long time ago, Deck was a cold and unforgiving world. There was no light, no warmth, and the word was covered in nothing but sand and spikes that shot out of the earth. Nothing populated this planet, it was impossible for anything to survive._

 _And then Terran was created. Forged from the ever-present earth, Terran was a goliath that toward high above the ground, and wrapped in sands that shifted and flitted around their body. Terran was curious and bright, having an ever growing optimism that never dimmed, and they had they made the decision to travel the globe on foot. Their feet crushed the towering spikes to rubble and flattened the ground, slowly forming the continent of Deck and its surrounding islands._

 _But Terran, with all his optimism, soon grew lonely. This whole expansive world, and he would not be able to share it with anyone. So, Terran took all of his optimism and hope and made two new living creatures._

 _Hope, ever glowing and bright, formed Sol. Their body, covered in precious jewels, burned bright and created light, and through that extent, formed color. Optimism, cheerful and happy, formed Ama, a small child who had on a puffy red dress and held a staff. Sol ascended into the sky, providing light and color to the entire world. Ama, like Terran, traveled the whole world, providing life to the earth by making plant life and animals that would roam and tend to it._

 _Again, Terran grew lonely, and he molded another being out of the sand that clung to him and the ground. Sol saw this and descended, giving Terran's new creation his curiosity, and thus, Eirene came into being._

 _Like Terran, her clothing was constantly moving and shifting, and her skin was as dark as the night sky. With her curiosity, she flooded the world and made the night sky with all of its constantly twinkling stars. Ama, always intrigued by the mysteries that came to the world, created fish and other ocean creatures to populate the waters. Eirene, upset that the ocean was still and never moving, sacrificed her body and transformed into the moon, traveling the sky opposite of Sol and helping him bring about Night and Day._

 _Terran and Ama, now the only two left on the planet, soon wished for more companions to see the wonderful world they had forged. So, with Terran's skills at sculpting and Ama's ability to grant life, they created Humans. However, doing this spent the last of their power, and they retreated into the Earth to rest for an eternity for their powers to be restored._

Natalya sighed and rolled the old, withered scroll back up and tied it close with a leather string. She had stumbled upon the library not too long ago and, since her mother and father had refused to give her a tutor, she had taken it upon herself to learn how to read. Most of the library had too many books with too many big words, and one small book took at least a month for her to complete.

So she dug deeper, into the very back of the library where all the maids and workers said "Don't go little Natalya" and found scrolls that were withering and frayed at the edges. There were complicated words, but she was hoping for something that was more… simple.

She wanted to learn, desperately, in fact. At the very least, she wanted to know how to read her name.

"I thought that little girls weren't allowed back here?" Natalya spun around and held the scroll close to her chest. She furrowed her brow when she saw an unfamiliar man standing next to her, running his finger over the spines of the books on the shelves. His face was hidden by the hood thrown over his head, but even the blonde girl could see the horns pulling around the fabric and the tail that curled out of his back.

"You are not of Clubs." Natalya said tonelessly, placing the scroll back in its place before walking around the strange man, never turning her back on him. "Nor are you human."

"I can get the human part, but who says I'm not Clubs?"

"You are not wearing anything green, and you do not have any clovers on your clothes."

"Point, but I prefer to stay neutral." The man turned and looked Natalya up and down before taking a book out of his jacket and handing it to her. "But just because I'm neutral doesn't mean I can't give you something."

The book was old, bounded in withered leather with designs etched on the cover. When Natalya looked up to ask the man what was in the book, he had vanished. The teenager darted around the library trying to find where the man had hid, making a rather large racket that attracted the attention of various servants.

As they dragged her out of the library, she held the leather-bound book tightly in her hands.

* * *

Natalya nearly threw down the book in rage. Of course the man would give her a book with nothing but pictures in it, of course!

Still, it gave her something to do. So, whenever she had free time, she would pose like the men in the books. Her mother would giggle, and say that it was nice that she was doing something fun. Her father simply rolled his eyes and got back to work.

What Natalya didn't understand was why the pictures showed the little person lifting up boulders, or making red lines. Certainly a human couldn't do that, right? The symbols on the sides of this one page didn't make any sense to her—well, any writing would, but these symbols looked nothing like the ones in the books she had read prior.

At the age of fifteen, long after Natalya had perfected all of the positions and deep into her cooking lessons with her mother, it occurred to her that maybe they weren't poses and more so a dance. You do position 1 and then move into position 2 and so forth, almost like the waltz she had to learn for a party with other nobles.

So the next day (her soup was amazing and no one else can deny it) she dressed herself in what her mother would consider rags and snuck out of the castle walls. She passed her baby brother Ivan on the way out, but he merely spared her a confused glance before continuing down to her father's room. It was horribly easy to sneak past the guards—they barely paid any attention to her, all they cared about was the future King.

It was nearly winter and Natalya rubbed her arms to try and keep herself warm, the dress far too thin to keep away the cold. Frost clung to the pine tree's branches, but Natalya pushed forward into the clearing that she and Ivan had played in when they were kids. Neither of them had come back here for nearly three years, not since their father had begun to 'train' Ivan for the role of Kingship.

As usual, the clearing was empty and devoid of any other humans, a thin layer of frost crunching under her feet as she moved to the center of the clearing. She took a deep breath in, held it, and then let it out slowly, moving into the first position that she had practiced. Her arms were spread out to her sides, her left leg held out in front of her as she put more of her weight on her right leg.

She shifted into the second position; her body froze as she moved forward, the heel of her right foot off the ground as she moved forward, her right hand held in a fist and parallel to her chest while her left arm was out behind her for balance. She held it for a while longer before she transited into third position; her torso twisted as she raised her fist higher and held her left arm at a much more natural angle. Fourth position was easy. She took a step forward and moved her left arm forward in a punch, her right arm lowered.

She breathed in again and moved until she had moved into a more relaxed stance. She closed her eyes and recalled each position mentally before tensing her limbs and moving through them at a rather fast pace.

She nearly screamed when she heard the tree trunks in front of her snap. Her eyes flew open and she stared in shock at the splintered wood and the large hole in the ground. Turning around, she repeated the 'dance' with her eyes open, watching as a section of the ground was removed and thrust out in front of her (although, this time she stopped the boulder before it ruined the clearing anymore). With a very large grin, Natalya went through the motions for the other 'dances' and watched with glee as the earth beneath her obeyed her.

She nearly missed the darkening of the skin on her left foot, the appearance of horribly cracked skin (or maybe, in this case, earth) with an 'A' and a Clubs next to each other on two separate slabs.

She grinned as she created a wall of earth to her right. She would hide the mark, who knows what her father would say when he would see it. For now, she would continue to practice her skills, and maybe trek into the lower districts to learn more from the more skilled architects that lived there.

She would have to thank the oddly dressed man if she found him again.

* * *

I'M SO SORRY THIS DIDN'T GET OUT SOONER I've been working on Grudges and I also didn't have internet or access to my computer since friday so I couldn't post Belarus's chapter. Plus, this one feels a bit... rusty and lack luster almost, to me. I know it's done and I loved writing it, but I want to start working on Ivan's chapter (and I'm going to have fun with more back story with that one)

So, actual notes!

\- Can I say ahead of time that I feel bad about Belarus, both as a character in this AU and in the show, as she's depicted as a stalker more than anything else? In this, I decided to make Belarus the sister of Ivan and resent him more than admire him, but also be shown to be independent and powerful on her own, and not suffocated by her father's rule. Her 'destruction' is supposed to show what magic she's skilled at, earth magic.

\- Belarus's family consists of her father (I imagine him as the Mongol tribes that existed in the area where Russia currently is today), her mother (an OC, but I can't think of any distinctive empire or country that would work), Ukraine (Sofia, oldest in the family), and Russia (Ivan, the youngest and the crown prince).

\- Her father is a big traditionalist-that'll be covered more in Ivan's chapter-which is why wasn't allowed to be in the same lessons that Ivan is going through, and she doesn't have a whole lot of power in the family/kingdom in general. She's also been forbidden from being taut how to read, write, handle a weapon, participating in politics.

\- The positions Natalya were in as she was doing earth magic was based off this scroll ( art/Earthbending-Scroll-148167100), which was based off of the Earthbending positions seen in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

\- Natalya doesn't have the same close relationship with Gilbert like Matthew. In fact, it's rare for any Joker to get 'close' to a human, nevermind a royal like those two have. As such, Natalya is grateful for the Joker giving her the book on earth magic, but she considers him more a nuisance than anything else.

\- The mythology in the beginning is supposed to be the basic 'religions' for the four kingdoms. Terran, patron god of Clubs; Ama, patron goddess of Hearts; Eirene, patron goddess of Spades; Sol, patron god of Diamonds. They do exist, and they tend to communicate through the Jokers, Aces, or any magic-sensitive people.


	8. King of Clubs

I. Am. So. Sorry.

School has literally shoved a shoe up my ass and I have a major backlog of work (and it's only October, what joy!). As such, my work on fanfiction has been slow at best, and especially because 1) I am not good at writing Russia and 2) I lost a hell of a lot of motivation to write this story. When I did work on this, it would mainly be world-building and, while fun, it didn't really help me shape out this story a whole bunch. Character backstory, yes. The actual chapter, not at fucking all.

But that just means that you guys are going to get an intermission that is chock full of world nonsense. Yes, that is how much stuff I have, and I am more than willing to share it all with you.

* * *

The new Queen of Clubs was, in Ivan's opinion, an odd woman.

He was expecting someone similar to his mother, in nature. Calm, yet stern, and willing to nurture and protect if need be it. He imagined them to be about the same age, yet she would submit to him, because that's how things worked. The woman submitted to the man, so, logically, the Queen would submit to the King.

It had been three days since Elizabeta and the Jack had been brought to the Capital, and it was clear now that she was not a woman that fit into the logical category.

The first day she refused a tour of the castle (though the Jack took it with a gratitude), found the armory, too a broadsword, and for the rest of the day was found walking through the halls with her hand on the hilt. The next day she wore pants and a shirt as she consulted with the council and passed a whole slew of bills that made them fly into a rage and forcefully kick her out of the room.

The third day was one that brought a surprised to Ivan. Katyusha had come into his room and demanded him to talk to the new Queen.

"I thought you did not care about what new laws would be passed after I came to power?" Ivan asked, the light green Luxes accenting the small scar on his eldest sister's chin.

"No, I said that I would support laws that you would pass." She said, shoulders tense and glaring at her brother. "But the Queen… she's destroying everything Отец made. Even Natalya is upset!"

Ivan's expression changed from calm to furious in record time, fist slamming into a Lux and shattering the jewel. He grit his teeth at the sharp pain that shot up his arm, and the feeling of warm blood running down his fingers. " _Ivan_ is _not_ a man we should look up to."

"He was _family_!"

"He was also _a tyrant_ , he _scarred_ you, he nearly _killed_ Мама more than once, and he kept Natalya and you from learning and being human." Ivan growled, examining his wounds. "I will talk to the Queen, as it is inevitable in the end, but there is no guarantee that I will revoke her laws when I don't even know them."

Now that he stood in front of the royal throne room, he could feel butterflies in his stomach. This was his soon-to-be wife he would be talking to, and yet it was likely that this conversation would end in a shouting match.

(Deep down, he knew that this wasn't for Katyusha or Natalya or Мама, but rather for himself. He would not realize this for nearly a year, but it would slowly seep through his thick skull and he would be proud to know that he stood strong alongside Elizabeta)

The doors were never silent. Thick stone scrapped against the ground and cause an ear-wrenching grinding noise to echo through the castle. He steeled himself, the red Lux in his staff burning with an unbridled passion as he entered the room.

His first thought when his eyes landed on the Queen were, _by Terran, she's beautiful._

There was no easy way of knowing the true color of her skin or hair, as the Luxes above them tinted everything a sickly green, but regardless her form radiated power and beauty. She stared out one of the windows, looking at the underground capital illuminated beneath her. She dressed in a loose shirt and pants, which were tucked into leather boots. Like the first day she arrived, her hand rested on a sword's hilt, and a shield with the royal kingdom's emblem laid abandoned at her feet.

This was his soon-to-be wife, and he could not have been a luckier man.

"I suppose you are here because of what happened with the council." Her gaze did not waiver from the city, stone buildings rising from the ground like the Ice Ghouls that roamed the caps above. "And you are here to strengthen their ruling, correct?"

"You are wrong with both of your assumptions, моя королева." Ivan moved closer to the woman, the throne room still unfamiliar despite having lived in the new castle for more than a year. "I simply wish to know what you did to anger them to the point where my own sister is demanding I talk to you."

"Are they really that angry with me?" She chuckled dryly, before turning to Ivan, tossing him a scroll of parchment that she had held in her free hand. The new King unrolled it and read over the messy handwriting of the Queen's. In the back of his mind, he made a mental note to get her a tutor to teach her how to write something more legible.

 _1._ _Women will receive equal pay as a man in their position._

 _2._ _Women are not bound to the whims of a man and are allowed an education_

 _3._ _Neither race nor nationality are signs of limitation in a job, if they qualify and meet your demands, they are eligible for hire._

 _4._ _Women are eligible for application in the Club's naval forces and military, so long as they meet the requirements for a male to enter._

Ivan read and re-read the parchment, expecting something truly scandalous to pop up out of the four lines. Nothing jumped out and screamed "Horrible and wrong" at him, so he flipped it over to see if there was anything on the opposite side.

No, nothing. Just the four proposed laws on the front.

"I understand that these are not popular opinions in Clubs, but they are necessary if we need to compete with Spades and Hearts, especially after the War." The Queen continued, and Ivan noticed that her grip on the sword's hilt had tightened. "But we need to progress, and we need to improve our policies if we even want to stand a chance."

"Does it look like I do not agree with you?" Ivan asked, a faint smile flickering across his face as he gently brushed his thumb over the dried ink. "I want to change my kingdom as well, моя королева. The only thing my father and I share is our name."

The Queen's eyes lit up brighter than any Lux, brighter than the sun, and the smile that spread across her face could have blinded the masses. "I- What about the council, won't they oppose this?"

"The council can be remade, or be forced to listen to us. My father's reign is over, it is time for us to rule the throne." Ivan took Elizabeta's hand in his with a genuine smile, and he could feel unadulterated glee radiating off of her, as well.

 _We will rule,_ Ivan thought, _and we will not fall. We will bring Clubs to glory, and all will bow below our power._

* * *

 **Please forgive me if my Russian is bad, as I used Google Translate to find these words. Corrections are appreciated!**

Отец - Father

Мама - Mother (kinda obvious)

моя королева - My Queen

I was originally going to name Ivan's father Boris, which comes from the rulers of the House of Godunov. Then I remembered the Russian ruler who killed his wife and kid, but it turns out Russia here already shares his name. Then I remembered in Europe it was kinda common for rulers to name their children after themselves, so the previous king is Ivan I, and the current one (Russia) is Ivan II.

With other notes which take a darker turn, I headcannon Ivan's 'father' (both in cannon and in this AU, as there was the Mongol tribes and other ancestors for our current countries) as being a gigantic shithead. Referring to this AU, it's supposed to be a mix of medieval history and fantasy tales (you know, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, all those good Grimm tales), so women were incredibly oppressed and had little rights and damn near no education. However, I wanted Clubs (which I took heavy inspiration from Russia) to be behind all the other kingdoms, meaning that Spades, Hearts, and Diamonds all recognize females as near-equals (I say equal because even today there's still a lot of discrepancies between the two genders). This means that most travelers that come from the other kingdoms find these practices pretty damn archaic, and often prefer to stay out of the major cities.

The reason why the Kingdom is so behind can be accredited to the Braginski bloodline, which travels back about 300 or so years in Deck (which are somewhat longer than the years on Earth). Every King ignored their queens, only having them to continue the bloodline and be seen as a 'successful suitor,' in a way. They constantly passed laws that would continue to oppress women and keep men in positions of powers, which ended with Ivan I's death which pushed Ivan II (who was sixteen, at the time) into his position of power.

In Natalya's chapter, it was clear that the capital city was aboveground. However, there is a good nine year gap between this chapter and the previous one, and a lot of stuff happens (which will be explored in an extra) that forces everyone in the capital underground. In otherwords, this is not a weird plothole, nor is this 'discrepancy' caused by me being incompetent, _there is an actual reason why this happened._

Luxes (Lux, singular) are glowing stones that provide light. For our A:tla fans, these are similar to the stones that light the correct path in the Secret Tunnels, and the stones found underneath Ba Sing Se. However, above ground they are useless, as they need to be connected to non-illuminant stones to properly work, and even then in the sunlight they have the strength of a glowstick. In Clubs, however, they are used as a kind of streetlight in the underground cities and provide enough light to navigate. The Lux Ivan has in his staff is an exception because it is of a red variety (the most common color and used Lux is Green), which can function so long as it close to some form of stone.


End file.
